What happened - was unable to log in or call up any threads?
What was Kalmbach IT doing?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I could get to Trains.com, but there were no links to any of the forums.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
And now the site is throwing security-certificate exceptions; something in the site configuration is now different, and wrong.
The site was down all afternoon and evening yesterday. But I have been having trouble with it since last January. It is an erratic problem with extremely slow loading and command freezes, which persist several days per week. But some times it works fine all day. But about at least 50% of the time, the site takes at least 1-2 minutes to open.
I used to frequently get that long running script error, or not responding error message. But that has rarely occurred over the last few months. But from last January to about July, it occurred almost every time I visited the site.
... and now repeated site exceptions on hotel kiosk software: "out of memory at line 1" when accessing nothing but the Kalmbach forum pages.
To keep the IT folks from having to find a flashlight, the Uniguest help line is (800) 467-1218, where they can probably find information about how to configure things to avoid security exceptions among other details.
Oh, yes: they can also cancel their sweetheart deal involving s.thebrighttag.com, which is again pushing misconfigured download requests I most emphatically do not want or need, especially when they arrive as modal dialog boxes.
I don't know what caused the outage yesterday, but I get all the same slow loading and freeze problems today as I have since January.
[quote user="Euclid"]
I don't know what caused the outage yesterday, but I get all the same slow loading and freeze problems today as I have since January. quote]
At the risk of seeming to 'pile on'; I seem to be experiencing similar difficulties. Site is un available, error messages, scrolling issues, editing issues with in a post, get really 'strange reactions'(?) while trying to post. And on the 25th, site was unavailable(?). I am utilizing Cox Comm out here, and their Cust Service had no answers for what was happening(?) with the Internet, and this Forum and Site.
Maybe, The Aliens have landed in Wisconsin, and are starting to abduct Kalmbach IT personnel?
Euclid I don't know what caused the outage yesterday, but I get all the same slow loading and freeze problems today as I have since January.
Johnny
EuclidBut I have been having trouble with it since last January. It is an erratic problem with extremely slow loading and command freezes, which persist several days per week. But some times it works fine all day. But about at least 50% of the time, the site takes at least 1-2 minutes to open.
+1
When activating my Trains bookmark - it takes a perceptable delay before the Forum site loads - on the order of 30 seconds to a minute - all other sites I access respons with activity within 5 seconds or less.
Once I am on the Trains Forum site then the response times become 'normal' again.
Nothing was working for me yesterday, either--couldn't get this Forum, the Newswire, or the Rochelle Webcam--those are my three portals here. Still have only a dark screen on the webcam (and I never had any problems while the others were describing them--right now it's just a black scream...I mean, screen).
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Rochelle Earth Cam is working for me.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper Vaporo Rochelle Earth Cam is working for me.
Ditto. Local dragging a single box out onto the main and the switch was resistant to returning to the main, at least it seemed to put up a bit of a fight. Another day at the office, I guess.
The s.thebrighttag.com Javascript downloads are now up to multiple times per page, over multiple sign-ins on multiple computers, only on the Trains Magazine site. (The Classic Trains forum and the Rochelle EarthCam, for instance, are so far undisturbed). So it's something the revenue/greed-maximizing boneheads know about, or ought to.
Again, I don't mind ads displaying content to subsidize the costs of free forums. I do mind code that attempts to download things to my computer or crashes it.
[quote user="CShaveRR"]
Nothing was working for me yesterday, either--couldn't get this Forum, the Newswire, or the Rochelle Webcam--those are my three portals here. Still have only a dark screen on the webcam (and I never had any problems while the others were describing them--right now it's just a black 'scream'
...I mean, screen).
Carl, on a Uniguest system that does not permit downloads or streams of more than minimal bandwidth, I can easily open the Rochelle Webcam in about 3 seconds, and it renders the image and sound without dropouts while permitting the scroll wheel to zoom. So I strongly suspect that if you're getting only a black screen you have a configuration issue on your browser 'client' -- could be time for the Ctrl-F5 reset ritual, or (on a Windows system) a check that you haven't inadvertently blocked content from a particular site or source.
As to just the Trains dot com forum problems
I have noted that (in the last 3 or 4 months) sometimes when I refresh the list of topics, or open a topic to read, the site just never comes back... no timeouts... just nothing but the chasing circle in the browser tab. Opening a new browser tab or window to the site will still not work. Sometimes opening a different browser will allow me into the site, other times, even it is locked up somehow. If I close the browser window and clear the cache and cookies (I use "CCleaner" to clear EVERYTHING) I can then open the browser again and open the web site. I have to log-in and the site will be responsive for a while (a few minutes to several days) and then lockup when I do a refresh or open a thread to read. I tried that yesterday and it just never came back no matter what I did.
What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.
mudchicken What the heck is s.thebrighttag.com? and command tag.js ....My company firewall is declaring war on it.
I'm getting a box asking, "what do I want to do with the tag?" from this site. (options being, Open - Save - Cancel) I looked it up on-line and it is somekind of advertising malware. I'm only getting this box on the Kalmbach site and it just started today.
Jeff
I am getting the popup tag too. If I cancel it, it comes right back in a few seconds. I have never seen it before today. I am also experiencing the usual freezes and slow loading. I understand that some people may not be experiencing any of these issues, so I assume a persons's own system may be vulnerable to these problems while other people's systems are not. I have no similar issues at any sites I visit besides this one. All other sites load in approx. 1/2 second.
In any case, I wonder how many people not registered on this forum come the site to look at it and give up because of the techincal problems? How many would-be new members are being driven away?
Were there some big changes in how advertising was delivered on this site back in January-March this year? I recall people mentioning that. I wonder if that transormation resulted in a lot of new software being added to the forum by outside marketing firms, and if so, I wonder if that may have created vast complications in the Kalmbach forum program.
The site is sometimes slow to load, but aside from yesterday, I don't routinely have a problem with it. I do run SuperAntiSpyware on my computer, and it scans for malware on a weekly basis. I haven't had any issues with the site mentioned, but when I searched my computer, it came up in a security scan I ran four years ago...
I have come to expect periodic outages like yesterday. When Kalmbach relies on a low cost shared host environment and doesn't monitor it, that's what you get!
OvermodOh, yes: they can also cancel their sweetheart deal involving s.thebrighttag.com, which is again pushing misconfigured download requests I most emphatically do not want or need, especially when they arrive as modal dialog boxes.
I'm slightly mystified. Just for grins I turned off uBlock Origin on my FF 62, restarted, and still don't have any wierd things happening (including bad performance). I'm running Linux Mint 19; perhaps this is a Windows specific issue?
BTW I'm using ~3GB memory out of 8 total, not unexpected as I have three different browsers running ....
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I've had the "slow-load-no-load" problem myself with the Kalmbach site. I usually try another website, and if it pops up quickly then I just assume there's a problem up in "America's Dairyland" and just walk away.
Lot's of other stuff out there to keep me occupied.
MikeF90I have come to expect periodic outages like yesterday. When Kalmbach relies on a low cost shared host environment and doesn't monitor it, that's what you get!
Another forum I participate in - run by and for racing enthusiasts - was faced with their forum provider converting their forums (more than just ours) from free to pay. The forum provider had its own issues in supporting their forums - with the form being unexpectedly down a day or two at a time. The pay change was to take place June 1 - just after the biggest racing period of the year - Memorial Day Weekend.
The week prior to Memorial Day the leaders of the forum moved it to another free provider - in a rush - with notice being posted on the old site. The first several weeks were spent 'tuning up' the options available in to providers software package to the collective approval of the forum members - since then smooth sailing. The price for this forum is accepting the 'edge ads' that have become a fact of life of anything that operates on the web. The forum has not experienced any downtime.
I don't know what Kalmbach is doing that that makes the software on their forums so klunky. Of course they are nowhere near as bad as Garmin was when they installed a vBulletin software forum that was trash beyond ANYTHING we have experienced - after 6 months of dealing with it the company was brow beaten in to making it work - after a fashion.
I could not get in TrainsMag yesterday. Then I was Googling some model RR stuff and one of the links would not come up, but I noticed it was also a Trains.com site. I rarely have problems with the site. While the ads on the site sometimes seem bothersome, it is nothing compaired to some other major publication sites.
Firelock76I usually try another website, and if it pops up quickly then I just assume there's a problem up in "America's Dairyland" and just walk away.
I do the same thing, except that I usually try a different web site in Milwaukee, which loads normally.
Yesterday was the first time in months that I have had trouble with this site. Normally it works fine for me.
Everything worked fine until I tried to log in. Then the website refused to load and eventually displayed a error message.
Clearing browser history and cookies brought me back to square one, and I repeated that process several times to no avail.
Felt just like being banned again .
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70Dude Yesterday was the first time in months that I have had trouble with this site. Normally it works fine for me. Everything worked fine until I tried to log in. Then the website refused to load and eventually displayed a error message. Clearing browser history and cookies brought me back to square one, and I repeated that process several times to no avail. Felt just like being banned again .
I had the same experience.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
Kalmbach:: pppppppppppppppplease get rid of this tag! Anti virus hates it and it is now infecting other sites we go to !
Just to chime in with my experiences, but on the 25th I was able to read the forums just fine, but as with a couple other users here, if I tried to log on, the process stalled for quite a while, and eventually gave me an error message, spitting me out completely.
On th other matter, chronic slow loading......I frequently have that problem here, when I try to access the forums directly. However...when I am having this slow loading problem, if I copy the cs.trains.com/blahblahblah url, and then open a new browser tab to Kproxy.com, and paste the copied url into the "surf" entry box, then hitting the "surf" button, this site loads immediately. Some of you other folks experiencing slow loading here might want to give the Kproxy middleman a shot and see if it makes your problem go away.
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